Daily Collegian - Greeks put competition, unity into their Week (2nd Place)

Greeks put competition, unity into their Week

Putting a little greek in last week was what many fraternity and sorority members were striving for during this year's Greek Week.

Greek Week is a time for members of the greek organization to meet on a friendly basis, Greek Week Chairwoman Ellen Kehlenbeck said, and not just in head-to-head competition.

"(Greek Week) is the only thing besides Homecoming that greeks do that is not for charity," Kehlenbeck said.

Although Greek Week brings unity among the members of the greek system, competition is still a major part of the week.

"To produce the quality that we have there must be incentive," she said, "and trophies give the incentive — something to work for."

The participation this year was strong, Kehlenbeck said, and the quality of the skits and the booths at the carnival indicated the teams worked very hard this year.

The high scores in the overall competition also showed the degree of work put into the events, she said, with nine of the 20 teams in the overall competition having over 600 points out of a possible 900.

The fraternity/sorority and fraternity/little sister teams competed in events such as skits, chariot races, carnival and greek games. Teams could enter each event individually or enter them all in the overall competition.

The theme for the skits, held during last week, was "Twas the night before Finals. . ." The skits were judged on theme, effectiveness, motivation, participation and originality.

The winning skit by Acacia fraternity and Alpha Chi Omega sorority had Santa Oswald warning students about the evils of not studying for finals to the tune of familiar Christmas carols.

The second place skit by Phi Kappa Psi fraternity and Pi Beta Phi sorority, "The Wizard of Oswald," took student Dorothy down the blue and white road in search of her number 10 card, which she needed to graduate. Along the way she ran into various people, including Wart Curner, football player, in search of an NFL draft.

The third place skit by Pi Kappa Phi fraternity and Alpha Omicron Pi sorority showed students at Finn State, with names such as Barry Cuda and Angel Fish, studing Fishics and Landography in the HUB Fishbowl for their final in Gillard Hall. The plot got a little fishy when the students decided to go to a New Wave party at Mr. Sea's to dance to such songs as Rock Lobster.

Chariot races were held last Wednesday evening on East Fairmount Avenue and although the chariots were built for racing, they were also decorated as such things as an out-of-order copying machine and the dynamic duo's batmobile.

The chariots were judged on quality of construction, creativity and appearance, and costumes.

The carnival, held Saturday afternoon, was a new event this year and participating teams built booths with games. Many of the games involved water being dumped, squirted and thrown on people and fortunately the weather was warm.

"It would have been a real damper on the carnival if it was cold," Kehlenbeck said.

Greek games, with such events as the "wheel barrel blind sweep" and the "pyramid," were held Saturday morning but the Trivia Bowl was also included in this event.

The Trivia Bowl was held all week and each participating team was given 10 questions a day about anything from sports to Penn State. Points were given for each correct answer.

"All in all, it has been a super week and everyone enjoyed themselves and had a lot of fun," Kehlenbeck said.

Winners of the events were: — Overall: Acacia and Alpha Chi Omega won first place with 815 points out of a possible 900. Alpha Kappa Lambda fraternity and Alpha Phi sorority won second place with 692.6 points and Pi Kappa Phi and Alpha Omicron Pi won third place with 689 points.

— Chariots: Acacia and Alpha Chi Omega placed first with 281.7 points out of a possible 300. Kappa Delta Rho fraternity and little sisters placed second with 260 points and Sigma Chi fraternity and Phi Mu sorority placed third with 257.4 points.

— Games: Acacia and Alpha Chi Omega took first place. Theta Chi fraternity and Alpha Gamma Delta sorority took second place and Sigma Nu fraternity and Gamma Phi Beta sorority took third.

— Carnival: Sigma Chi and Phi Mu won first place for the Jail Booth. Acacia and Alpha Chi Omega won second place for the Whoville Booth and Alpha Kappa Lambda and Alpha Phi won third place for the Saloon Booth.